They’re Different

How Millennials will redefine the marketplace.

 

Guest Column 

Jane Bailey is VP, Planning & Perspectives at TPN, a nationally recognized retail and shopper marketing agency, whose clients include PepsiCo, 7-Eleven, The Hershey Company, Bank of America, MWV and Clorox. A member of the Omnicom Group, TPN has a proven history of producing programs that drive and sustain transactions for global consumer brands.  This is the second installment in her two-part column discussing the important of recognizing the role of MIllennials in our economy.  

• They grew up with technology as part of their lives. There were computers in their homes and their classrooms. 

• Computers brought things to them, instead of them having to go to where these things were. They could search for information or shop without ever leaving their room.

• For them, communication was portable and instantaneous. Phones were something you carried with you. You could reach your friends (or your parents could find you) wherever you were. Phones and phone numbers were linked to people, not addresses.  You didn’t have to wait for someone to get a letter or answer a phone call. Texting and IMs got through in an instant.

Millennials have grown up with technologies that expanded their access to people and things and enabled them to do things with a speed and ease never known before.  As a result, their expectations of products, retailers, and communications are different. Speed, access and personal expression will be recurring themes with this generation. 

Here’s a more in-depth look at how products, retailers and communication is viewed among Millennials and how brands should consider reaching this influential group:  

Products

Millennials are used to getting what they want the way they want it.  With access to the Internet, Millennials are not restricted to the products that are available in their town. They can go online to locate the product they were seeking. Or, they can find a website where they can personalize an item or create something they wanted. Toyota has taken this one step further with their Scion line (targeted at young adults) that allows buyers to “Build Your Scion” by choosing from a set of options.  

While Millennials will go through the same life stages and have similar needs as pervious generations, listening to them and adapting (rapidly) to how they are thinking about these products will be critical to succeeding with them. 

Retailers

Millennials are not restricted to geography or time when it comes to shopping. Some items (like songs or books) can be acquired instantly without ever leaving where they are. Other items can be ordered and shipped (often with little or no charge for shipping).Millennials have options—lots of them—and traditional retailers cannot afford to disappoint them. Retailers that do not keep key items in stock, who are slow to respond to trends, or whose hours are out of sync with Millennials will be shunned for other choices.  

Clothing, especially fashion clothing, will be important to Millennials as they go through their 20s and 30s. Clothing retailers will need to hit all three of their buttons—speed, access, and personal expression—to engage Millennials keep them coming back. 

Clothing retailer Zara is an interesting case; it provides a model that manages to do this. Twice a week, stores receive new, limited shipments of clothing and accessories. These items are on trend and reflect the interests of their shoppers. Staff in the stores listen to shoppers’ comments and send this information back to headquarters, where their factories can create runs of requested colors or variations of products they already have and get them in the stores in a matter of days, instead of months. With limited runs for all of their products, there is a sense of excitement and urgency in the stores. Hot items sell out and aren’t restocked. Shoppers know that if they see something they like, they need to buy it right then because it won’t be there if they come back next week. And, when they do come back next week (as many of their shoppers do), there will be new items to see and consider.  

Food retailing is another area where Millennials are set to change how things are done. Convenience and freshness are important to Millennials, and—as with all the other areas of their lives—they don’t want to compromise or trade off one for the other. They want high quality, fresh produce and prepared foods, attractively displayed and available when they want it. The food retailers that will bring them this combination, at a reasonable price, will capture their wallets as well as their stomachs. 

Communication 

Millennials are an enigma. Online, they may open up and share personal and intimate information with people they have never met.  In person, they are often shy and reticent. In the workplace, Millennials prefer emails and instant messages to phone calls and face-to-face conversations. 

In retail, Millennials tend to be reluctant to approach sales staff for assistance—preferring to leave rather than “look dumb” by asking for help. For marketers, Millennials’ media usage makes them a difficult target to reach.

Traditional media, like newspapers, don’t work with them. They are more likely to get their news from Jon Stewart than Katie Couric. They don’t watch television—except for the shows they watch on Hulu and Fancast. While they use Facebook and Twitter to connect with “friends”, it’s not clear if these are places where they will want brands and businesses to connect with them. 

Just like their parents, the Millennials are going to drive consumer demand for the next twenty to thirty years. And, just like their parents, they do things differently and, because there are so many of them, they will redefine the marketplace. It’s not a question of if this will happen, but when. As much as this is a challenge to manufacturers, retailers, and marketers, it is also a major opportunity for those who begin to adapt or even reinvent their approaches and businesses now.  Those at the leading edge of these changes will be the winners as the Millennials work their way through society.   

For more information visit www.tpninc.com or to reach Jane, email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .